Caterpillar's display at MINExpo 2024 dominated the floor at Las Vegas Convention Center's Central Hall last week.
There were plenty of big machines and novel technology solutions to explore, from simulators for training operators to the original equipment manufacturer's energy storage solution.
Two of the key developments on show were Cat's electric and autonomous machines.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Thad Litkenhus, product value stream manager for large trucks at Caterpillar, told Mining Magazine: "Caterpillar has been doing electrification development in some way for the past 20 years".
Those developments have included diesel-electric machines for surface and underground mining.
"In 2018, we started thinking about the prospects of a battery-electric large mining truck," Litkenhus said.
"The application [was] really propelled by our customers and their need to decarbonise their operations."
One of the biggest challenges, Litkenhus said, was figuring out how to navigate the energy management problem on a site.
A zero-emissions fleet depends on green energy sources and can face higher power volatility.
Litkenhus explained that Caterpillar's Dynamic Energy Transfer, on show at Minexpo, is a way of taking energy to the machine while it is still doing useful work.
An arm from the vehicle links directly from the truck to an electric rail. This is instead of a pantograph and overhead wires as used in a traditional overhead trolley assist system.
BHP will be the first customer to put the DET to the test with its Caterpillar 793 fleet at the Jimblebar iron ore mine in Western Australia's Pilbara and the 798 fleet at its Escondida copper mine in Chile. It also plans to trial the DET as an integrated system with Cat's autonomous solutions.
Productivity and safety
Caterpillar global director of operations Tiago Danda said Caterpillar offered autonomous options for drilling, dozers, underground loaders and its flagship autonomous haulage programme.
That autonomous haulage programme, working for 11 years so far, has moved 8.6 billion tonnes of material and covered 325 million kilometres of ground.
"Best of all, [there were] no reported injuries throughout the whole process," Danda said.
He quoted customers as citing productivity gains of between 15% and 30% from adopting Cat's autonomous haulage solution.
